


Loch Lomond

by A_Candle_For_Sherlock



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Fluff, Love Confession, M/M, Scottish John Watson, Songfic, Tumblr Prompt, post-Return
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 04:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17318492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Candle_For_Sherlock/pseuds/A_Candle_For_Sherlock
Summary: Here's the song Watson's singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joseJ7S314oI stole the reference from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes--it's the song Holmes sings outside the Diogenes.





	Loch Lomond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OldShrewsburyian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldShrewsburyian/gifts).



> Here's the song Watson's singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joseJ7S314o
> 
> I stole the reference from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes--it's the song Holmes sings outside the Diogenes.

My Watson was humming. This was new: he had listened to all music with love, always, but had never made any.

But all that day, as boxes and trunks were brought in, and his coat and hat hung again beside mine in the hall, and his writing-desk placed back in the sitting room, next to our hearth, and his tobacco-box set down beside my slipper on the mantel, he went on humming now and again beneath his breath–I thought “Loch Lomond.” His pitch was perfect.

I had never heard him sing.

“What’s that line?” I said, at last, hoping on my luck, and wonder of wonders, he looked up and smiled a little, and sang it–

“But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again, though the waeful may cease from their greeting.” A low, warm, clear baritone, just suited to him. It struck me in the chest—my breath came short. He was turning rosy-cheeked as he finished. But he held my gaze. 

When I did not speak, “Granddey used to sing it,” he said, and his cultivated accent had softened with the song, toward the Scots border and Northumberland. “All the time. Missin’ my gran. It’s been in my head, since–”

“Mary died,” I finished for him. But he shook his head. His eyes on me were bright, unyielding.

“Since ye did. I didna’ think I'd ha' seen ye again.”

The melody still hung in the air between us. _Oh, ye’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland afore ye, but me and me true love will never meet again._

 _“John,”_ I said, and he reached for me at last.

**Author's Note:**

> Watson was stationed with the Northumberland Fusiliers. Northumberland is on the border of Scotland, and Watson is a Scottish name, so in this fic Watson's family is Scottish; and the song Watson is humming is a traditional rebels' song. A Jacobite, sentenced to death, is singing to his fellow soldier, about to be released home. 
> 
> "Kens" is "knows" in Scots, and "greeting" means "weeping." His friend will take "the high road," the earthly way, home alone. The dying soldier will take the "low road," the souls' road, and reach Scotland first. The whole part Watson is singing goes like this:
> 
> The wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring  
> And in sunshine the waters are sleeping  
> But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again  
> Though the waefu' may cease from their greeting  
> O ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road  
> And I'll be in Scotland afore ye  
> But me and my true love will never meet again  
> On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond


End file.
